1. Technical Field
This present application relates to a device for dispensing labels, such as self-adhesive labels, on objects.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
Devices or labeling units on then, which labeling objects with self-adhesive labels, which are pulled at a removal or dispensing edge from a strip-format backing material (backing film) that serves as a backing for the labels by bending this material around the dispensing edge and are transferred to the individual object to be labeled.
In these devices, for the movement of the backing material over the dispensing edge and thus for the removal of the labels from the backing material, there is a first automatic advance unit which is driven intermittently or in a clocked manner by a drive mechanism so that, for example, in each work cycle, a label can be applied to an object that is being moved past the dispensing edge. An additional automatic feed unit is used for the continuous extraction of the label material consisting of the labels and the backing material from a supply roll, and for the transport of this label material into a loop well of a looper which is provided in the direction of transport between this additional automatic feed unit and the dispensing edge, to achieve a matching between the continuous removal of the label material from the supply roll and the clocked advance movement of the label material or of the backing material across the dispensing edge. The looper forms, from the label material in the loop well, without guide rollers and using only or usually a current of air or gas, a “mass-less” or “approximately mass-less” loop, so that sufficient label material is always or virtually always available for the intermittent advance movement of the label material or for the start-stop operation of the automatic feed unit that moves the label material across the dispensing edge. An additional drive mechanism is provided for a receptacle or a winding mandrel for an empty spool, onto which the empty backing material, i.e. the backing material from which the labels have been removed, is wound up.
One disadvantage of these known devices is that, possibly with thin backing material, the backing material can flutter or run untrue, e.g., an oscillating, deviation of the label or backing material can occur in the direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the labeling material or in the lengthwise direction of the strip of labeling or backing material between the looper and the dispensing edge and/or in the direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of the labeling material or in the lengthwise direction of the strip after the dispensing edge and before the winding mandrel that holds the empty coil, which results in the generation of noise and/or production disruptions caused by a tearing of the backing material. Possibly to restrict or minimize disruptions in production, in the prior art thicknesses in the range between twenty and twenty-five micrometers are customary for the backing material. Label materials with thinner backing materials, for example in the range of fifteen micrometers, which would be advantageous in terms of a savings in the costs of material and/or disposal and to increase the number of labels per supply roller, cannot be reliably processed using these devices.